LANGUAGE IN INDIA

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Volume 13 : 2 February 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
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         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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The Arabic Origins of "Water and Sea" Terms in English, German, and French:
A Lexical Root Theory Approach

Zaidan Ali Jassem

Abstract

This paper applies the lexical root theory to the investigation of the Arabic origins of water and sea terms in English, (German, French, and Latin). The data consists of over a 150 English words for water, sea, fish and ships. The results show that all such words in Arabic and English, for example, are true cognates with the same or similar forms and meanings, which means they belong not only to the same family but also to the same language, contrary to traditional Comparative (Historical Linguistics) Method claims. The different forms amongst Arabic and English words are shown to be due to natural and plausible causes of phonetic, morphological and semantic change. For example, Greek hydro, English water, and German Wasser all come from Arabic qaTr 'water, rain' via different sound change routes where /q & T/ became /h & d/ in Greek but /w & t (s)/ in English and German. Due to their lexical variety and multiplicity, Arabic words are the original source from which they emanated. In short, this proves the adequacy of the lexical root theory for the present analysis according to which Arabic, English, German, French, Latin, and Greek are dialects of the same language with the first being the origin.

Keywords: Water, sea, and shipping words, Arabic, English, German, French, Latin, historical linguistics, lexical root theory

1. Introduction

In his study of the numeral words from one to trillion in Arabic, English, German, French, Latin, Greek and Sanskrit, Jassem (2012a) showed that all exhibit the same or similar forms and meanings in general, forming true cognates with Arabic as their end origin. For example, one (unique, unity, Unitarian, unison, once, only, inch, etc.) derives from Arabic awwal/oola 'one (m/f)' through the change of /l/ to /n/. This led him to reject the claims of the Comparative 'Historical Linguistics' Method which classifies Arabic and English, German, French, and so on as members of different language families (Bergs and Brinton 2012; Algeo 2010; Crystal 2010: 302; Campbell 2006: 190-191; Crowley 1997: 22-25, 110-111; Pyles and Algeo 1993: 61-94). Therefore, he proposed the lexical root theory to account for the genetic relationships between Arabic and English, in particular, and all (Indo-) European languages in general. Three main reasons were adduced for that: namely, (a) geographical continuity and/or proximity between their homelands, (b) persistent cultural interaction and similarity between their peoples over the ages, and, above all, (c) linguistic similarity between Arabic and such languages (see Jassem 2013b for further detail).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Zaidan Ali Jassem
Department of English Language and Translation
Qassim University
P.O.Box 6611, Buraidah
KSA
zajassems@gmail.com
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